Does anyone rememebr Perky's cat and dog food?

When I was a kid back in the 60's and 70's I remember we gave both our cats and dogs canned Perky's cat and dog food. It smelled gross, but I don't recall any health issues during that era. I remember the same thing of Purina Cat Chow. Have the pet food industries gone downhill? Is old school better?

I would argue the major changes have been with the advancement of science and better diagnoses and treatment for our pets. Perhaps in the 60s and 70s a lot of things about pet health weren't as well known yet, whereas now we have both to knowledge and technology to find problems in our pets before it's too late. I wasn't around then, but from what I understand generally if a pet died, it died, end of story. Today it seems like we know we can ask questions, our pets are living longer (which is another contributing factor), veterinary science has advanced. I honestly have no idea what the nutritional value was of foods from that time, but I don't think it was that long ago that people were saying you can feed a cat oatmeal in milk, or rice in milk, and have it thrive.

The same could be said about humans - is our modern day diet loaded with carcinogens because cancer is such a frequent occurrence these days? One could  say that GMOs and hormone-loaded livestock are the root of the problem, but bear in mind that this is also a time where people are living longer, health sciences have learned a lot, and ailments can be identified and treated in ways that never would have existed back when it looked like no one had any health issues.

There are some thoeries that pet food used to be made with higher-quality ingredients, because pet food is made from the garbage of human food production, and nowadays, with mechanically separated chicken and "pink slime" and other ways of repurposing products that would formerly have been considered waste, what finally does go into pet food is the really nasty stuff :/. Whereas back then, the food probably contained a lot of scraps and bits that they couldn't figure out how to use in human food.

Although I do think that increased awareness has more to do with it.

Yes,as a child I remember "Perky's canned dog food. It was very popular in Calgary,Alberta,Canada.
The factory that produced it was located near Fish Creek next to the glue factory where the horses
were rendered ( meat sent to Europe-remainder for glue) .The reason the meat was sent to Europe
was because after WW1. horse meat was a staple food due the devastation of the conflict to crops&
animal stocks and there was an abundance of leftover war horses to eat ( it was more economical to
slaughter them than return them to their countries) The Europeans acquired a taste for horse to the point of preference.
Back to Perkys ,some of the horse meat went to them plus beef & other stock.A can of Perkys was the
primary food we fed all our cats & dogs we had white growing up as kids.It was a staple on our shopping list when we went to Safeways.When you opened it smelt & looked good like real meat you could put in
a sandwich.The pets loved it & we never had any sick animals so it must have been healthy,too.
I have a true tale about Perkys- I was around 10yrs old & shopping for groceries with my sister &dad
at the Safeway near Old Fort Calgary site ( gone now) and we walking thru the parking lot when I noticed 3 very old people pushing carts loaded with 20 or more cans of Perkys dog food which I thought
was strange.I said to my dad ,"Dad,look at those funny old people all they bought was dog food."He
replied," There not funny old people,son ,it's all they can afford to buy to eat .It was on sale today."
I didn't say another word but later in the week when I was feeding Nemo ,my cat I opened a new can of
Perkys & before I spooned out some for the cat I tried a spoon myself .It tasted good.I made a note
in my child's mine that if I was really hungry or starving like those old people I could always go to Safeway & for Quarter I could buy a can of good food & survive. This was 1960 Yours truly JDW Brown

snagglepuss said:

Yes,as a child I remember "Perky's canned dog food. It was very popular in Calgary,Alberta,Canada.
The factory that produced it was located near Fish Creek next to the glue factory where the horses
were rendered ( meat sent to Europe-remainder for glue) .The reason the meat was sent to Europe
was because after WW1. horse meat was a staple food due the devastation of the conflict to crops&
animal stocks and there was an abundance of leftover war horses to eat ( it was more economical to
slaughter them than return them to their countries) The Europeans acquired a taste for horse to the point of preference.
Back to Perkys ,some of the horse meat went to them plus beef & other stock.A can of Perkys was the
primary food we fed all our cats & dogs we had white growing up as kids.It was a staple on our shopping list when we went to Safeways.When you opened it smelt & looked good like real meat you could put in
a sandwich.The pets loved it & we never had any sick animals so it must have been healthy,too.
I have a true tale about Perkys- I was around 10yrs old & shopping for groceries with my sister &dad
at the Safeway near Old Fort Calgary site ( gone now) and we walking thru the parking lot when I noticed 3 very old people pushing carts loaded with 20 or more cans of Perkys dog food which I thought
was strange.I said to my dad ,"Dad,look at those funny old people all they bought was dog food."He
replied," There not funny old people,son ,it's all they can afford to buy to eat .It was on sale today."
I didn't say another word but later in the week when I was feeding Nemo ,my cat I opened a new can of
Perkys & before I spooned out some for the cat I tried a spoon myself .It tasted good.I made a note
in my child's mine that if I was really hungry or starving like those old people I could always go to Safeway & for Quarter I could buy a can of good food & survive. This was 1960 Yours truly JDW Brown

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I worked at red top pet foods for 30 years..I understand you ate a table spoon of perky dog food..if you want I can tell you exactly what it's made of as I was plant supervisor..I think you would be sick to your stomach if I told you

as a child growing up we used to have it on sandwiches, when i was a teenager,Mom stopped doing that when i started working in a local grocery store. i never asked and she never said it was for pets.im 69 now and it didnt seem to hurt me.i imagine Mom boight it due to price..

kenvb said:

as a child growing up we used to have it on sandwiches, when i was a teenager,Mom stopped doing that when i started working in a local grocery store. i never asked and she never said it was for pets.im 69 now and it didnt seem to hurt me.i imagine Mom boight it due to price..

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I was a supervisor at red top for 30 years...you would throw up if I told you about the rotten by products that we put in perky dog food..makes me sick to think you ate that stuff that I made for so many years..worked there right till they shut the doors for zoo parking...many good memories of my time at red top...I often wonder what all the boys are doing so many years later...